IHRA Partner Profile: Good Vibrations Motorsports

As you'd guess from the IHRA Good Vibrations Motorports Texas Nationals at San Antonio Raceway, the second event in the 2016 IHRA Drag Racing Series season, as well as being a presenting sponsor at the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals in Edmonton, Alberta's Castrol Raceway, the California-based parts supplier has been a solid sponsor, supporter and friend to the IHRA and its members.

Located in Whittier, Calif., Good Vibrations does a small over-the-counter business for local racers, but it has made an international name for itself with its mail-order business, offering fast service, reasonable prices and solid advice for customers ranging from experienced professionals to first-race rookies.

It was established in 1989 in owner Jim Maher's garage. He is a racer and former champion with the California Independent Funny Car Association (CIFCA) circuit, a group founded in 1984 by, among others, racer Virgil Hartman and his son, IHRA racer Richard Hartman. Maher was elected president in 1989, a position he held for 20 years. The series went dormant after 2010, until Maher held a CIFCA reunion race several years later, and the series reformed and raced in 2015 and 2016.

It was this kind of commitment to his local races that has made Good Vibrations a success in a much larger field. "The business really evolved out of my association with the Funny Car circuit," said Maher. "I was a go-to man at the events, responsible for having the cars there. As the guys would forget their safety equipment or break parts, they'd come to me.

"So I started carrying spare parts with me, and next thing I knew, I was getting calls through the week to bring things to the races and, all of a sudden, I'm in the mail order business – and the rest is history."

Good Vibrations specializes in superchargers and fuel injection, but anyone who checks out their inventory at Goodvibesracing.com can see quickly that there's a lot more than that in stock, from fire suppression systems to fuel filters, to books, belt drivers and burndown tubes. For years he did it out of a 2,000-square-foot facility, but now has larger quarters for his employees and stock.

"It wasn't really a master plan, to be honest. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and seized the opportunity," he said in a business profile.

Like so many of his customers, Maher didn't start out in a Funny Car – his first ride down the strip was in 1977 in a '70 Plymouth Duster 340 at Youngstown Drag City in Ohio. But he has never forgotten what it was like to try and find parts on a budget, and advice on how to use them.

That's why Maher and his team have been friends for years with the IHRA, and why the sanctioning body looks forward to working with Good Vibrations Motorsports again in 2017.